For the past 20 years Professor Renner has done research, service, and social action in
the area of sexual assault and child sexual abuse.

The work began in Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada with the establishment of
the Service for Sexual Assault Victims by his community psychology class at
Dalhousie University (Renner & Keith, 1985). The work continued when he become a Research Professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, ON, Canada. Over
this period of time, Professor Renner's research group, often in collaboration with
local sexual assault services, have made numerous scholarly contributions to
the field. In September of 1998 they launched a National Social Action Program
(NSAP, 1998) in Canada to press for reforms in the criminal justice process.
To data, this work has resulted in:

Seventeen scholarly papers and publications (see the "Reference
Material" section of this website).

National media attention, including the largest response to the central
office in the history of the Canadian Psychological Association to an
article published in a CPA journal (CPA, 1997a, 1997b).

An invited presentation of the research to the Executive of the
Department of Justice, Government of Canada.

A role in the consultation paper issued by the Department of Justice
regarding proposed changes to the Criminal Code of Canada and to the
Canadian Evidence Act (Department of Justice Canada, 1999a, 1999b).

A three-step program (see "NAPASA Materials"
on this website) for local social action by local sexual assault
services with applied materials available for down loading from web-sites
in both the English and French languages (www.carleton.ca/~erenner/nsap.html).

An invited presentation by the National Judicial Institute of Canada to
a selected group of Canadian Judges.

The legal issues which we have address through our research in Canada are
virtually identical to the legal issues victims of sexual assault and child
sexual abuse face here in the United States. Despite the similarity of issues,
our work has gone largely unrecognized in the US.

As a retired professor, a US citizen, living full time in the United
States, Professor Renner has adapted the work on sexual assault and abuse to the
United States, and introduced a parallel National Action Plan Against Sexual
Assault (NAPASA) here.

REVIEW OF PREVIOUS WORK

Basic Research Findings

Our empirical data came from the cases of the sexual assault service (2,500),
the court records (n=1,050), and from transcripts and direct observations of
trials (n=105). We compared the information reported directly by victims to the
profile provided by cases which reached the criminal justice system. Among the
cases reaching the criminal justice system we compared the treatment of sexual
assault and abuse cases with the treatment of robbery and assault cases (Yurchesyn,
Keith & Renner, 1992; Renner & Yurchesyn & Renner, 1994; Renner,
Alksnis & Park, 1997; Renner, 2002).

The clear picture was one of selectivity and disparity to the disadvantage of
women and children who are victims of sexual assault. Only atypical sexual
assault and abuse cases selectively reach the criminal justice system, and once
into the system those case are treated differentially. Three factors of
relationship, harm and danger accounted for the selectivity and disparity which
denied women and child victims of sexual assault and abuse equality and justice.

Relationship.

When ever there is a relationship between the victim and
the offender the victim is held partially responsible for the offense and the
court is more lenient.

Harm. When ever there is no clear evidence of physical harm to the victim
the offense is treated as less serious and the court is more lenient.

Danger. When ever the offender has good character and is not associated
with a criminal or underclass life style the offense is treated as less serious
and the court is more lenient.

These three factors which determine which cases are selected into the
criminal justice system and which ones are treated as serious are also the three
primary social conditions which define the relationship of women and children to
the men who sexually assault and abuse them. In short, the criminal justice
system has confounded the social nature of sexual assault and abuse with the
legal criterion for leniency. Thus, the reality of women and children who live
socially normative lives is to receive less than the full protection of law from
sexual assault and abuse.

Our observations of court cases and the formal analysis of transcripts
identified 24 distinct mechanisms (themes and tactics concerning relationship,
harm and danger) which regularly occur in the court room and account for the
selectivity and disparity revealed by the discounting of severity. These
mechanism distort the true nature of sexual assault for adult women and hold
children responsible for their sexuality. These are procedural failures of
justice that can be directly challenged in the court room (Renner, 2002).

National Social Action Plan

Our conclusion that these outcomes represent a failure of "social"
or "fundamental" justice require forms of social action to bring about
the necessary reforms. We have proposed a three prong social action plan that
can be carried out by local grass roots groups (NSAP, 1998). These are:

Document the Outrageous

. Sexual assault and abuse cases receive
extensive local coverage, but only rarely national coverage of some
sensational case. Consciousness raising of the issues must take place a the
local level. Our court observation system is transferable and may be
downloaded free. A few courtroom observers at the local level can record the
mechanisms through which relationship, harm and danger operate to discount the
treatment of sexual assault and abuse by the criminal justice process. This
step addresses injustice to women and children as a social issue by providing
advocates a unifying vocabulary and objective data to speak about local cases.

Challenge the Legal System. Each community group has access to the local
State Attorney who is responsible for prosecuting local cases. The material
enables a willing prosecutor to raise objections to the troublesome themes and
tactics we have identified, and to appeal those cases where the objection is not
sustained. Because the arguments rest of matters of fundamental justice (equity
and fairness) no immediate new legislation is required (L’Heureux-Dubé,2001;
Murphy, 2001). Forcing the legal issues of selectivity and disparity into the
appeal process is a direct route to reform. (Some clarifying legislation will be
required at some time, but the starting point is the appeal process to isolate
the ways specific current practices are incompatible with the constitutional
requirements of equality and fairness before the law (Alksnis, 2001; Renner,
2002).)

Supporting Victims. Because there are a finite number (24 identified in
our research) of mechanism through which the distortions take place, adult
victims in particular can be prepared to avoid falling into the traps which
result in discounting the severity of the offense. In the case of children,
other third parties, and in particular judges, can assume this role by
intervening to ensure that the court in the process of protecting the child from
sexual exploitation by an adult do not in turn allow the legal process to
exploit the child in a similar way (Park & Renner, 1998).

Media Attention

Our conclusion that the criminal justice system "discounts" male
sexual violence against women and children, and thus contributes to the very
problem for which it is the supposed remedy, confirms the subjective claims of
women and children who have been victims and the observations of sexual assault
services. This face validity for the empirical evidence is both news worth and
readily comprehensible to those who provide direct service. In Canada, our work
has received front page treatment in the Globe and Mail and the Toronto
Star (Canada’s national newspapers) as well as many local newspapers, and
prime time news coverage by CBC radio and television. My essay series appeared
as full page in the Montreal Gazette on June 23, 1997, as well as in
other newspapers. There is an important story to be told, a receptive media, and
a large audience of women and children who have directly experienced the
selectivity and disparity of which I speak, and who are desperately in need of
validation and vindication.

REFERENCES

Alksnis, C. Fundamental Justice is the Issue: Extending Full Equality of
the Law to Women and Children. Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless,
2001, 10, 69-86.

Murphy, W. The Victim Advocacy Research Group: Serving a Growing Need to
Provide Rape Victims with Personal Legal Representation to Protect Privacy
Rights and to Fight Gender Bias in the Criminal Justice System. Journal of
Social Distress and the Homeless, 2001, 10, 123-138.

Renner, K. E., Alksnis, C., & Park, L. The standard of social justice
as a research process. Canadian Psychology, 1997, 38, 91-102.

Renner, K. E. Re-conceptualizing sexual assault: From an intractable social
problem to a manageable process of social change. In Debra Kelley & James
Hodgson, eds., Sexual Violence: Policies, Practices and Challenges. In
Press. Greenwood Publishing: 2002.

Yurchesyn, K., Keith, A., & Renner, K. E. Contrasting perspectives on
the nature of sexual assault provided by a service for sexual assault victims
and by the law courts. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 1992,
24, 71-85.